Urlacher's Blog and the Chicago Media Treatment

Add another Chicago athlete to the blogging world as Brian Urlacher has started his own on Fox Sports. Urlacher decided to join the ranks after his refusal to work with the Chicago media. For the past two weeks, Urlacher has given the local scribes nothing to work with, preferring to give short, undescriptive answers. While the questions they ask him are generally pretty bad and not open-ended, the guy has been complete jag to them.

Having worked in the media, conducting postgame interviews are something that I generally didn't care to do in a group setting, which is pretty much the way things are in the pros with the big names. When I was at SIU, we had press credentials for the Rams games, and I got to interview people like Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, and Marc Bulger. All of which, I felt were very accommodating and willing to speak. That is, except former Ram and current NFL Network analyst Marshall Faulk..especially after a loss. I one time waited around for 30 minutes to speak with him, as did a couple other St. Louis Post-Dispatch writers, while the guy sat in the showers and didn't come out. When he finally did, he was already practically dressed, sat down, tied his shoes, and he was out.

I'm not saying the guy has been over backwards for anyone. But you know better as an athlete and a human being this our job. Nothing pissed me off more then people who were so fucking arrogant that they felt they could ignore you. Come on, dude. Do I really want to talk to you when you're pissed off? Of course, not, but do I need to? Yes. So just get it over with, give me a little something to work with, and be done with it for both our sakes.

Anyways, sorry for the tangent. Back to Urlacher. Look, you're playing like shit, whether it's your back or not, and I don't think the guys' making excuses for it either as he mentions that in his latest post. There's about 80 comments from fans for that one, and I'm not sure why I was surprised to see so many people practically sucking his dick with praise. The guy has been great for the most part, and I'm sure any General Manager would love to have #54 patrolling the sidelines. But come on. The guy doesn't pay child support, and every person I've ever talked to who has met him said he's a complete dick. I've heard this several times.

I guess my whole thing is that people think he's some great guy. You don't know him. Neither do I. If you want to tell him you think he's a great player, that's totally fine. I don't have a problem with that. But what I do have a problem with is Chicagoans making him out to be some saint. I'm not trying to come off as an Urlacher hater cause I think the guy outside of this year has deserved all the awards and accomplishments he's received. But when things go bad, acting like your real self to people who are simply trying to do their job is uncalled for. You may not like being asked why you suck this year, and I'm sure nobody else would. Danny Mac from Mac, Jurko and Harry on WMVP-1000 yesterday brought a great point: think about how he would be treated if he were in New York. They would rip him apart. It's not necessary, but everyone on the field should be held accountable for their actions.

I'm glad to see Urlacher take credit for that in his blog, and I think that's a great start. But do your job, and let the media do theirs.